Note 10 — Chapter VII · PARTICULAR ACCOUNTS

In the interest of the unusual I can not refrain here from personal reference. As I sit writing this notice of Pliny and old Vesuvius, my house continues being shaken every few minutes by one of the most prolonged series of earthquakes known to science, according to the report of our famous observatory chief, the Jesuit, Father Jose Algue. Taal volcano, fifty miles from Manila, is now in violent eruption, January 29. The microseismographs by 9:15 last night had already recorded one hundred and seventy-two shocks in five minutes less than twenty-four hours, and the shaking still goes on, while a party of scientists from the government bureau is preparing to visit the spot. There should surely be material for a story in that trip.